Drop end gondola car



Feb. 14, 1950 o.- INGRAM DROP END GONDOLA CAR 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 28, 1946 Feb. 14, 1950 o, INGRAM 2,497,221

DROP END GONDOLA CAR Filed Feb. 28, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Feb. 14,1950

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Application February 28, 1946, Serial No. 650,894

. Claims.

This invention relates to railway gondola cars and more particularly to the drop end doors of. such cars. It has for its principal object the provision of spring means which may be easily applied to the drop end doors of existing. gondola cars. to enable a single workman to move the. door from an open horizontal position to a closed vertical position.

The drop end doors of gondola cars customarily weigh from 600 to 800 pounds apiece and two or three workmen are consequently usually required tov move them from open to closed position. Each of the workmen is, therefore, subjected to possible injury due to negligence of his fellow workers or due to his own carelessness. Sometimes drop end doors of gondola cars are closed by mechanical means, such as cranes, but it is seldom that such means is available when required. By providing the door with spring means whereby it may be easily closed by a single workman, the injury hazard is materially reduced and. no ne'- cessity exists for using some kind of. mechanical. door closing means.

The primary feature of the invention consists in providing a drop end door with a plate spring which extends toward the hinge axis of the door and is engageable with an abutment secured to the car body whereby the spring is deflected when. the door is moved toward: open position and thus provides a force tending to return the door to closed position.

Another feature of the invention consists in providing the .drop end door with a plate spring for cooperating with an abutment secured to the car floor, the upper surface of the abutment being curved. so that the spring will be gradually deflected as the. door moves to open position.

A further feature of the invention consists in providing the drop end door with a plate spring which under initial compression when the door is: closed so that the spring will function to maintain the hinge connection between the door and car body.

A still further feature of the invention consists in Providing a transversely corrugated drop end door with a plate spring secured to the door above the lowermost corrugation so that the spring upon engaging an abutment on the fi'oor of the car will fulcrum on the lowermost corrugation to cause the spring to deflect when the door is moved toward open position.

Other and more specific features of the invention, residing in advantageous forms, combinations and relations of parts, will hereinafter appear and be pointed 0111; in the claims,

indicates the side sheets of the car which aresecured at their upper ends to top chord angles 2' and; which at theirlower ends are secured to Each of these;

side sill. structures of the car. structures includes an upper floor supporting angle 3 and a lower heavier angle 4. The floor 5 which may advantageously be formed of transversely extending wood planks rests upon the horizontal flange of the angle 3 and also upon cross bearers. 6 which are connected at their inner ends to the center sill of the car I.

At each end of the car are drop end doors 8 and, since the two doors are of identical construction, only one is illustrated and described.

The door to which the invention has been shown as;- being applied is, in the main, of conventional design, having a transversely corrugated body portion 9, inturned side marginal flanges l0 and a top: coping anglev I I which is adapted to engage the car floor when the door is in open position as shown in Figure 3'. No mechanism is shown at the upper corners of the door for securing it in vertical closed position as any of the many well known devices may beemployed for this purpose.

Secured to the lower corners of the door are brackets. l2. having inwardly offset portions l3 provided with hinge pintl'es M. The brackets l5 are-secured to. the side walls of the car and each is provided with a recess l 6 for receiving the adjacent pintle of the door bracket. The recess of each bracket may conveniently be U' shape, having substantially horizontal legs or arms H con-' nected adjacent the outer end of the car body many as four plate springs may be used, as

shown, the two inner plates terminating intermediate the lowermost corrugation of the door and the hinge axis of the door and the two outer plates extending farther down into position to engage two or more laterally spaced indentical abutments 20 secured to the floor of the car. The upper edges of the spring plates are riveted or otherwise secured to the door and, as they extend downwardly toward the hinge axis of the door, they overlap the lowermost corrugation 2| which affords a fulcrum therefor.

When the door is in upright closed position, the spring plates are deflected to a minor degree, sufficient enough to prevent forward movement of the lower portion of the door and thereby hold 7 the pintles M in the recesses 16. The upper surface of each abutment 20 is preferably curved, as indicated at 22, in order to gradually increase the deflection of the spring plates as the door moves toward open position. Thus the spring plates will exert their maximum lifting efiort when the door is fully open and this lifting effort will gradually reduce as the door is lifted to closed position. The lifting effort does not decrease to zero since, as explained above,.the plates are slightly deflected when the door is in full closed position.

In assembling the door with the car, the abutments 2!) are not secured to the car floor until after the door is held in its upright closed position with the outer face of the lower portion thereof in engagement with the upstanding flange of an end angle 23. With the door in'this position, the abutments 20 are then bolted to the car floor so as to deflect the spring plates an amount sumcient to hold the pintles M in the recesses l6. Furthermore it will usually be desirable to remove the brackets 20 before attempting to hingedly disconnect the door from the car to repair damage sustained by the door or to renew any one of the spring plates which may have been broken. Upon removal of the abutments 20, it will be appreciated that the door may be disconnected from the car by merely moving the lower portion of the door inwardly in a substantially horizontal direction for a limited distance.

Various modifications may be made in details of the present embodiment of the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A railway gondola car having a hinged drop end door movable from open to closed position in opposition to the action of gravity, a plate spring secured to the inner face of the door and extending downwardly toward the hinge axis thereof, and an abutment rigid with the car and engageable with the outer face of said spring for defleeting the spring inwardly toward the door as the door is moved towardopen position there providing a force tending to return the door to closed position.

2. A railway gondola car having a drop end door movable from open to closed position in opposition to the action of gravity, a plate spring having one end secured to the door, and an abutment engageable with the outer face of the spring adjacent its free end for providing a force tending to move the door from open to closed position, said abutment having a curved upper surface engageable with said spring during movement of the door from one position of closure to the other for forcing the free end of the spring toward the door and for varying the force exerted by said spring during said opening movement of the door.

3. A railway gondola car having a hinged drop 4 end door movable from open to closed position in opposition to the action of gravity, a plate spring secured to the inner face of the door and extending toward the hinge axis thereof, and an abutment rigid with the floor of the car and engageable with the outer face of said spring adjacent its lower end, said abutment having a curved upper surface for progressively forcing said lower end of the spring inwardly toward the door as the door is moved to open position whereby a force is provided tending to return the door to closed position.

4. In a railway gondola car having upright side walls, the combination with a hinged drop end door adapted to be disposed in an upright position adjacent one end of the car to close the space between the side walls, of a plate spring secured to the inner face of the door and extending toward the hinge axis thereof, and an abutment rigid with the car engageable with the outer face of said spring when the door is in upright closed position tending to maintain the door in closed position, said abutment having a portion engageable with said face of the spring as the door approaches open horizontal position to force said spring inwardly toward the door and thus deflect it a greater amount than when the dooris in closed position so as to provide a force tending to return the door to closed position.

5. In a railway gondola car having upright side walls, the combination with a hinged drop end door adapted to be disposed in an upright position adjacent one end of the car to close the space between the side walls, of a plate spring secured to the inner face of the door extending toward the hinge axis thereof, and an abutment secured to ward the door as the door is moved to open position and thereby provide a force tending to return door adapted to be disposed in an upright posi-t the door to closed position.

6. In a railway gondola car having upright side walls, the combination with a hinged drop end tion adjacent one end of the car to close the space between the side walls, of brackets rigid with the car having pintle receiving recesses, a pair of brackets respectively secured to the lower corners of said door having pintles disposed in said recesses, a plate spring secured to the door extending toward the hinge axis thereof, and an abutment secured to the car engageable with the outer face of said plate spring when the door is closed to maintain said spring under initial compression, said abutment being formed with a curved upper surface to progressively force the spring inwardly toward'the door as the door is moved toward open position.

'7. In a railway gondola car having upright side walls, the combination with a hinged drop end door adapted to be disposed in an upright position adjacent one end of the car to close the space between the side walls, of brackets rigid with the car sides respectively having U-shaped portions provided with substantially horizontal legs affording pintle receiving recesses opening inwardly into the car body, brackets rigid with the lower corners of the door respectively having hinge pintles disposed in said recesses, a plate spring secured to the inner face of the door and extendingtoward the hinge axis thereof, and an abutment rigid with the car engageable with the spring when the door is closed for maintaining said hinge pintles in said recesses of the brackets, said abutment serving to increase the deflection of the spring as the door is rotated toward open position and thereby provide a force tending to return the door to closed position.

8. In a railway gondola car having upright side walls, the combination with a hinged end door adapted to be disposed in an upright position adjacent one end of the car to close the space between the side walls, an abutment rigid with the car, a plate spring having one end secured to the inner face of the door and having its opposite end interposed between the abutment and the door, said abutment being engageable with the outer end of the adjacent portion of the spring when the door is in upright position, and means on the door affording a fulcrum engageable with the inner face of the spring so that when the door is moved toward open position the end of the spring in engagement with the abutment is forced inwardly toward the door to provide a force tending to return the door to closed position.

9. In a railway gondola car having upright side walls, the combination with a hinged drop end door adapted to be disposed in an upright position adjacent one end of the car to close the space between the side walls, said door having a .plurality of transverse corrugations, of a plate spring secured to thednner face of the door above the lowermost corrugation thereof, and an abutment secured to the car floor to deflect the lower end of the spring as the door is moved toward open position to provide a force tending to return the door to closed position, the lowermost corrugation of the door affording a fulcrum on which the spring is deflected.

10. In a railway gondola car having upright side walls, the combination with a hinged drop end door adapted to be disposed in an upright position adjacent one end of the car to close the space between the side walls, said door having a plurality of transverse corrugations, of a plate spring secured to one of said corrugations above the lowermost corrugation, and an abutment secured to the car floor engageable with the lower end of the spring for deflecting it as the door is moved toward open position, said lowermost corrugation in the door affording a fulcrum on which the spring is deflected when the door is moved toward open position and the upper surface of said abutment being curved to gradually increase the deflection of the spring as the door approaches open position.

ORVILLE INGRAM.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Certificate of Correction Patent No. 2,497,221 February 14, 1950 ORVILLE INGRAM It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows:

Column 3, line 58, for the Word there read thereby;

and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Ofiice.

Signed and sealed this 13th day of June, A D. 1950.

[SEAL] THOMAS F. MURPHY,

Assistant Gammissz'oner of Patents. 

